Tuesday, May 31, 2011

The FLAG looks good flying out there...

In protest. There are people taking up the Revolutionary War flags and flying them high, not understanding how tough it would be to win a war against the British Empire, well, maybe not today. But at the time of the American Revolution it would be tough, they kept bringing more Generals and troops, building more ships and destroying the colonies, if needed. Today's Americans hardly handle History well, building a nation or severing ties with the Mother Country would be very, very traumatic.

I proudly flew the American Flag after 9/11, until the day that America attacked Afghanistan, when I took it down. They had made the terrorists an enemy of the state, given them and all who harbored them status as an enemy and it would be WAR to the death. That they were terrorists, and I was not terrified, and criminals, and they should pay for their crimes, was not what I was taking the flag down for... I thought making this a war was the way to lose it as a war. I had already been part of one of those. You have heard of the Vietnam War, it wasn't at all like the movies. I was catching a piece of 60 Minutes on Sunday, and the fire base reminded me so much of the one I spent ten months of my twelve in when I was on the tour in RVN. Of course they were talking to the Commander, and he said a lot - his body language told me he was holding back much (he did have a career to think about). But he and I know that the media wasn't going to get it right, but thanks for the visit and the coverage.

People are dying out there, for that flag, and they have been betrayed. So, since it looks so good to fly the flag on Memorial Day and the weekend. I think I will fly the American flag in protest of all the stupidity, the poor government, and those in office and agencies that aren't ready to stand up and deliver on the Constitution of the United States, the Declaration of Independence and the potential of the People to be so much more and so much better than those that think they are in power - for all the wrong reasons. Not Masters but servants, effective people frighten those that can't control their own temptations and lusts. Really! I know, they count their money, can't remember all the stuff they have, probably don't have any family or friends that would selflessly die for them - they are not a solution to the problems of America.

I got in some trouble for flying the American flag in Iraq, after all the United States of America was freeing Kuwait, not conquering Iraq. Political correctness will muddy the waters so you can't drink it. But my feeling was that I wasn't hiding that I was in the 82nd Airborne Division, an American fighting man and the President had sent me to do a job. So I listened to the admonishment of the Command Sergeant Major that told (or reminded) me that he had said there was to be no Flying the Flag in arrogant display of our Wonderfulness. Those were not his words but his conveying the political correctness of our military and political leadership at that time. And Earl didn't worry about that, for I knew what men would fight for, and kill for and die for -- haven't seen political correctness do much except make one feel bad about feeling free. And I thought destruction of bullying was a new goal of the foolish, and it seems like verbal bullying and rule by shunning and snide asides to those out of favor is a given today.

Fly the flag of the United States of America, like making yourself a hard working, good-hearted person, building the future as you reshape America to its potential, a beacon of Liberty earned the hard way.